My sweet Logan. Logan
was energetic, healthy, and beautiful, and the most active 6 year old boy I
knew. He loved life and made the most of
every moment of every day. When he
walked into the room, his smile and laughter would fill the room with positive
energy. He was loved very much by family,
friends and his school. He loved playing
soccer, t-ball, basketball, snowboarding and exercising, which he called “Doing
his Moves”. Thomas the Train was his
first love at the age of two. After that
came Spiderman, Legos and Transformers.
He enjoyed climbing trees, going for hikes, swimming, counting with
numbers and coins, playing with his friends and making people laugh. He was
the best big brother to his little sister and baby brother. They looked up to him and loved him very much.

Logan
was born on January 22, 2002. We lived
in Hudson NH for 3 years after Logan was born, but shortly after the birth of
his baby sister, Jaclyn, we decided to move to Maine to be close to
family. January of 2007, Logan got a new
baby brother. Logan was thrilled with
the birth of Ryan. We knew Logan would
make the best big brother to our newest addition to our family. Logan started Kindergarten in Sept of
2007. It was an exciting time for all
of us. So many new things Logan would
get to do and experience. We were
excited about Soccer games, Basketball practices and T-ball games.

Winter
of 2008 was no different than any other winter.
All three kids seemed to have an ongoing cold or runny nose throughout
the cold months that seemed to never go fully away. Each one got the low-grade fever that would
keep them home from school or preschool, but nothing that made me think anything
out of the ordinary was happening. Each
bounced right back to their healthy selves.

May 7th, it was a Wednesday; Logan
had his 6 year annual physical. At this
time, Logan was feeling great and was his normal, active self. He had his physical and everything looked
great. I mentioned to the doctor, like I
always did at his physicals, that when Logan was an infant, he had a heart murmur. From my understanding, murmurs are nothing to
worry about and that kids outgrown them as they get older. The doctor listened extra long to his heart,
both front and back, and said that everything sounded fine. That evening, Logan wanted to throw himself
a party. He loved it when we had parties
and gatherings at our house, so he wanted to create a party for himself. He made pretend cake and cookies with play
dough, created a Pin the Tail on the Donkey game, decorated the house with his
art work and balloons, and we proceeded to have a party for him when his Dad
arrived home. Little did I know that
this party that he threw for himself would have so much meaning two days later.

The
next day, Thursday, May 8th, we went to my father’s house to pick up
some seeds that he and Logan would plant on Memorial Day. Logan picked out cucumbers, tomatoes,
pumpkins, radishes, carrots, lettuce and beets.
He was very excited about the small garden that he and his grandfather
were to plant in a few weeks.

Friday, May 9th 2008. I will never forget this day. It was the day that changed my life
forever. Friday morning was like any
other day. Logan was off to school,
happy as can be. He was excited about
the first T-ball game that they were to have the next day. Jaclyn went off to preschool. I was home with baby Ryan. It was a Friday like any other Friday. Later that day, the bus dropped Logan off at
the end of the road with another neighborhood boy. The boys wanted a play-date, so we all headed
to our house to play on our play-set in our back yard. The two boys climbed all over the play-set
like monkeys for over an hour. At
5:00pm, the neighbors went home, and we all headed inside to get ready for
dinner. We had plans later that evening,
after their father got home, to all go bowling where they served pizza. However I wanted them to have a little
something healthy to hold them over until we arrived at the bowling alley. One of Logan’s favorite dishes was fruit
salad. So I made a fruit salad for them
to eat. They sat down at the table at
about 5:15. By 5:30, they were done and
off playing in the den. I was in the
kitchen with the baby cleaning up after dinner. At about 5:45, I headed upstairs with baby Ryan
to get everyone a clean pair of socks for those bowling shoes that you have to
wear. Logan was in the den with his
sister playing with his Thomas the train set.

When I came down the stairs, I noticed that
Logan was lying in a very awkward position.
It looked like he had been sitting on the floor with his legs out in
front of him, but then his body was folded so that his head was between his
knees. As I walked towards Logan, I said
to him that he needed to sit up so that he could put on his clean socks. He didn’t move. I set Ryan down and rolled Logan over. My heart stopped at the very moment. He wasn’t breathing. He was blue around his eyes and mouth. I scooped him up and ran to the kitchen where
I knew the phone was and dialed 911. I
proceeded to administer CPR on Logan until the paramedics arrived. My husband arrived home thinking that we
would be all ready to go bowling, but instead found me doing CPR on his
son. The paramedics arrived at about 6:00pm. The doctors pronounced Logan dead at 6:47pm
at the hospital. They never were able to
revive him in the ambulance. I truly
believe that Logan died at home in my arms.

Two
days later on Sunday (Mother’s Day) we learned that Logan had an enlarged
heart, but the cause was unknown. They
told us that they would need to do more tests to figure that out. Almost 4 months later we were told that Logan
died of Viral Myocarditis. A virus attacked
his heart and made his heart 75% larger than normal.

Memorial
Day came and my father and I did plant Logan’s vegetable garden. It flourished with veggies. The garden gave us a heart shaped
tomato. It was a sign from our little
boy that he is still with us and loves us.
The party that Logan threw on May 8th was also a gift from
Logan…a day that we celebrated his life while he was still with us. His decorations and artwork from that day
are still hanging on our walls.

Logan
showed no signs of having anything wrong with his heart. He was never short of breath, never showed
signs of dizziness, never complained of leg cramps, and was always ready to run
and play and be full of life. After Logan
died, I started hearing more stories of teenagers collapsing in gym class or
athletes falling on the fields. It still
baffles me that Logan had his annual physical two days prior to his death, and
everything sounded fine. Unfortunately,
in a lot of cases like Logan’s, the first and only sign of this condition is
death.

There has
to be some way to detect this disease before it is too late. Please
help and donate to a wonderful foundation, The Logan Sweet Foundation.
The money raised will go to the Myocarditis Foundation for research. The Myocarditis foundation’s hope is that with more knowledge
about the disease, physicians will provide earlier and more effective
treatment that will save lives. Your donation will help
researchers learn more about this heart condition and help spread awareness to
doctors, pediatricians and parents